Mafeking Road

Arguably the most enduring collection of South African short-fiction, Mafeking Road has never been out of print since its first publication in 1947. Although Roy Campbell wrote to Herman Charles Bosman, “I think your stories in Mafeking Road are the best that ever came out of South Africa,” Bosman himself was not quite happy with the text. “I was in such a hurry … that I didn’t do what I had always intended: i.e. to restore them as far as possible to the way they were originally, when I wrote them,” he replied. Now, for the first time, Bosman’s stories have been restored to the original 1930s (magazine) versions, which adds some 1 300 words of never-before-seen Bosman-isms to the text. Added to this is Fred Mouton’s signature style illustrations, which make this, quite simply, the best version of Mafeking Road ever published. Bosman would approve.